Lowest Price | The Contracting Education Academy

January 17, 2019 By AMK

DoD’s long-awaited LPTA regulations expected in 4th quarter of FY19

For a number of years now, Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) source-selection procedures have come under fire for overuse and misuse at the same time budget constraints make LPTA methods more enticing to some cash-strapped agencies.

In an LPTA procurement, the Government evaluates proposals for mere technical acceptability under the solicitation’s stated evaluation criteria. Of the technically acceptable proposals received from eligible offerors, the Government then awards the contract to the lowest-price proposal, without considering any additional value that more expensive proposals may provide. In an LPTA acquisition, it does not matter that the second least expensive proposal may have three times more technical merit than the lowest-price technically acceptable proposal. Even if that technically superior proposal is only a dime more expensive, the Government is required to make the award to the acceptable proposal that is ten cents cheaper.

Some of you may remember that, way back in 2016, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2017, requiring the Department of Defense (DoD) to revise the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) within 120 days to require DoD contracting officers to ensure six criteria are satisfied before issuing a solicitation on an LPTA basis.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=767110

January 26, 2017 By AMK

GAO ruling lets GSA buy the USDA steak, not the mystery meat

The General Services Administration (GSA) may have just put the first nail in the coffin that eventually will bury the widespread use of lowest-price, technically acceptable (LPTA) contracts for services.

The Government Accountability Office’s decision to deny four protests of GSA’s Alliant 2 contracts for IT services could end up being a landmark ruling that is that first nail.

“Lowest-price technically acceptable has been disfavored among contractors for putting price over innovation. Now we have protesters who in essence claim that cost was only nominally and improperly considered in the Alliant 2 evaluation,” said Barbara Kinosky, managing partner of Centre Law & Consulting LLC. “We have seen DoD move away from LPTA. This is the first major requirement coming out of a civilian agency that is clearly saying, ‘Contractors, we are looking for smart over cheap. Give us the USDA steak, not the convenience store mystery meat.’ I am confident this is a trend we will now see more of since GSA has taken the lead in the technology area where we definitely need to excel.”

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2017/01/gao-ruling-lets-gsa-buy-usda-steak-not-mystery-meat/

February 23, 2016 By AMK

New acquisition tool allows agencies to comparison shop

Contractors and interested members of the public may now use the online Acquisition Gateway to view a slice of agency procurement data, the General Services Administration has announced.

The new tool advances the Obama Administration’s push, launched in December 2014, to remove procurement duplication across government through category management.

Agencies are encouraged to “act as one” and use the Acquisition Gateway to find side-by-side comparisons of different agency solutions for common procurement challenges such as cloud computing and logistics. The idea is to let agency purchasers connect with like-minded professionals and explore the 10 “hallways” of products and services.

The gateway offers category-related articles produced by federal employees, templates, market-research tools, and prices-paid data organized along the steps of the acquisition life cycle. Opening it to the public was done in the “spirit of data transparency,” GSA said.

Keep reading this article at: http://m.govexec.com/contracting/2016/02/new-acquisition-tool-allows-agencies-comparison-shop/125731/

February 22, 2016 By AMK

Is lowest-price-technically-acceptable on the decline?

Lowest-price, technically acceptable (LPTA) contracts aren’t going away – but data does suggest Federal agencies are cutting back on the practice.

LPTA deals took the market by storm as the government slashed budgets in the wake of the Great Recession. When the Pentagon unveiled its Better Buying Power initiative in 2009, the government signed about 4.2 million LPTA contracts, or 2.4 percent of Federal procurements. Three years later, the number of LPTA contracts had ballooned to 7.5 million, or 4.4 percent, according to an August 2015 study by Deltek Inc. of Herndon, Va.

Now LPTA appears to be in decline. According to Deltek’s analysis, LPTA utilization peaked in 2012 and declined the next two years running, a total drop of 24 percent from the 2012 peak. 2015 data has not been compiled.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govtechworks.com/are-feds-retrenching-on-lowest-price-contracts-maybe

June 30, 2015 By AMK

Long-time in coming, OFPP reverse auction memo rings hollow

Anne Rung, OFPP administrator, has released a six-page policy memo basically reminding agencies of best practices to keep in mind when using this tool.

But the only real instruction to agencies is for them to send her office a point of contact by July 10.

“OFPP seeks to work with agencies to identify the essential management data points (e.g., price paid for item, fees paid (if any), number of bidders and level of interactive bidding) and mechanisms for collecting and aggregating information in a manner that leverages technology and avoids the need for manual collection,” Rung wrote in the memo. “For your awareness, as a further step, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council will open a case to develop coverage on the use of reverse auctions in the Federal Acquisition Regulation and will address the guidance in this memorandum, as appropriate.”

The rest of the memo doesn’t necessarily address any of the long-held concerns by the Government Accountability Office, lawmakers and vendors.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/517/3875528/Long-time-incoming-OFPP-reverse-auction-memo-rings-hollow

For a number of years now, Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) source-selection procedures have come under fire for overuse and misuse at the same time budget constraints make LPTA methods more enticing to some cash-strapped agencies.

The General Services Administration (GSA) may have just put the first nail in the coffin that eventually will bury the widespread use of lowest-price, technically acceptable (LPTA) contracts for services.

Contractors and interested members of the public may now use the online Acquisition Gateway to view a slice of agency procurement data, the General Services Administration has announced.

Lowest-price, technically acceptable (LPTA) contracts aren’t going away – but data does suggest Federal agencies are cutting back on the practice.

Anne Rung, OFPP administrator, has released a six-page policy memo basically reminding agencies of best practices to keep in mind when using this tool.

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